Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-11-12
ANARCHISM.
History of the Attempted
Social Revolution.
ITS FOUNDERS AND FRIENDS.
The Chain of circumstances That
Led up to Yesterdays
Executions.

Il
Associated Press DISPATCHES to the HERALD.
A more striking procession Of civic
events may never again be witnessed
than the one having its latest outcome
to-day.
The supposed absurdly theatrical
demonstrations with red banners and
black that took place in the streets of
Chicago not two winters age, followed
soon afterward by the picturesque vet
ominous Sunday gatherings of tatter-
demalions, foreigners and dema-
gogues on the broad common at the
lake front are now recalled as the
quick forerunners OF secret cellar
drillings by hundreds of ignorant ia
natical rifemen in the purlieus
throughout the city. Then came the
cool, deliberate dynamite experiments,
by carefully-selected masked repre-
sentatives in the woods skirting the
suburbs. Later on, secluded in the
quiet of downtown rooms.
DARK CoNcLAvKs
Of wild-idead but brainy, unscrupu-
lous leaders eagerly discussed as their,
long-coveted opportunity, the just-be-
ginning development of the working
mans concerted movements for uni
form eight-hour day. =
How the gigantic, peaceful strikes
were turned into riots, how the entire :
world was startled by the blood-chill-
ing massacre in the Hayma, ket, then
the majestic State trial, the amazing
bravadO of the one American defend
ant, the horribly grotesque marriage
of another one of the prisOner-eyery
detail OF these strange occurrences
and the extraordinary train succeed
ing, now presents itself again as III the.
whole had passed but Yesterday.
The keynote of it all is found inthc-
platform of
THE MYSTERIOUS l. A. A.
International Arbeiter (Working--
men's) Association-of which organi-
zation August Spies and his seven CO.
defendants were leading members and
upholders. In the International plat
form it IS urged that "the present
system under which property 10.
owned by individuals shoDld be de-
stroyed, and that all capital which,
has been produced by labor should be-
transformed into common property
'by force" Eighty groups" of these
dangerous associations existed in the
United States, chiefly at the great i'm
duetrial centers, Chicago alone being
the ill-starred possessor OF seven. Only
portion of the members were.
armed, yet the number of this class.
in Chicago exceed 5000, every man
Of whom attended regular military
drills, had his own rifle and revolver.
and could obtain
DYNAMITE AND BOMBS.
For the asking. The unarmed men,
bers of the groups were constantly in
contact with their armed brethren,
and in hearty sympathy with their
purposes and their principles. TWAS,
this compact, well-disciplined l. A..
A. that had for its organs three now
noted newspapers-the Arbeiter lei
tung, the Alarm and the AndrchisA
Excepting handsome, youthful Louis !.
Lingg, who, though taking conspic- !,
uOus part, was mere acting agent,
each of -3' lsl s.t
THE EIGHT HAYMARKET DEFENDANTS
Was directly connected with one Of
these papers. = I
August Spies, keen, cynical Hes
sian, with the subtle intellectual vigor
Of an Iago, was the editor-in-cllief of
the Arbeiter. The jaunty, daredevil
little Texan, Albert Parsons, brother
OF a Confederate General, presided
over the Alarm. At the head Of the
anarchist George Engel, another Hes
sian, but of a coarse, brutal type, out
Heroded the most blood-thirsty utter
ances of his compeers, While Sam
Fielden, the Englishman, sullen look
ing, shaggy and forbidding, but as an
agitator simply volcanic, and Oscar
Neebe, the polished, attractive Ger
man. American organizer, were more
especially concerned in other than
journalistic branches of the propa-
ganda, they were, nevertheless, among
the directors respectively of the Harm
and the Arbeiter Zsitung. The gaunt
Bavarian, Michael Schwab, was Spiess
assistant editor, and his fellow-coun-
tryman, Adolph Fischer, he Of the
poisoned dagger, was the Arbeitcr's
head foreman.
Not one of these men-howevert they
might split hairs-could candidly
deny that he was instrumental to y
greater or less degree in helping ON
the catastrophe at the Haymarket.
OF the legal guilt of each nothing need
be said further than that its certainty
was put to tests seldom II ever paral-
leled.
During the long months preceding
the bomb-throwing the defendants one
and all were incessantly active in
AarrATING AND ORGANIZING,
In demonstrations and expert
ments." Their speeches and articles
fairly bristled with impassioned APP
peals for the laboring people to pro-
vide themselves with firearms and
dynamite. Specific instructions were
given how to handle and use the ex-
plosive, and how to make bombs and
how to procure weapons. All this
was stated by the conspirators to be
making ready for the coming social
revolution. What was meant by
"social revolution" was not left to be
vaguely inferred, nor was the time
when it was to be inaugurated dim
uncertainty of the future. The rev
olution" was more frequently defined
in speech and writing as a sudden,
bloody, forcible upheaval of the right
of private ownership OF property,
then the bringing about state Of
society in which all property should
be held in common.
Incredible as it may seem, the
avowed purpose was
TO pELUGE THE CITY IN BLOOD
OF the property owning classes, first
DESTROYING the police and militia, who
were derided as their special cham
pions. The period Of confusion de-
veloping from the mammoth strikes
of tha first of Nav. 1895. WAS def